Pans which are used solely for cooking pizza, either commercially or domestically, are well-known. The great majority of such pans have a relatively flat bottom and some type of upwardly-formed side wall.
Some prior art designs disclose pizza pans which have holes, slots or some other means for allowing moisture to pass down through the pizza pan bottom. These designs are often only marginally effective, however, since the above-described air holes are closed off by the conventional flat cooking surface in the oven and a subsequent flat cutting surface upon which the pan is placed after being removed from the oven.
To alleviate the accumulation of excess steam in a pizza crust, and consequent sogginess, both in an oven and after placement upon a counter top, specially-designed serving platters have been proposed which are capable of receiving pizza pans and which maintain a ventilation space between the bottom of the pizza pan and the bottom of the platter itself. Such platters are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,785,968 and 4,865,219 to Logan et al. Though these platters represent an improvement over similar products which were known at the time of their development, the present invention represents a further significant improvement over such platters, particularly from the standpoints of conservation of storage space and cost.